Thanks for pointing this out, Aliki. I was completely unaware of it. They asked neither me nor my publisher, or if they did, I'd forgotten it. Nonetheless, I'm happy to see Drowned Immortal featured there. Had a nice email from Don Selby at Poetry Daily couple of days ago. He is going through all our e-books at The New Formalist site with an eye to featuring some poems. Which reminds me, Alicia, where is your e-book manuscript?

Thanks Clive and Roger. I have reservations about the poem. It was written a quarter century ago, then slashed from pentameter to tetrameter by the EfH as we prepared Very Far North for publication. Its inspiration is Pound: "Li Po also died a drunk./ He tried to embrace a moon/ in the Yellow River." So much for Tim not loving vers libre. But I think every serious poet hates his juvenilia. I once read some of Wilbur's first book to him and Charlee, and he said "Tim, you make it sound pretty good." At the time I wrote Drowned Immortal it might have been my best poem, but it still sticks in my craw that Alan cut it to tetrameter. And that at 26 I hadn't sense enough to choose the proper measure.

Congratulations, Tim. That's a good site, and once again their excellent taste is evident.
As for disliking your old stuff, just imagine how you'd feel at your young age (and happy birthday, by the way) if you read something from twenty-five years ago and realized you had never surpassed it. The old stuff looks inadaquate not because there's anything wrong with it but because you're getting better and better.
RPW

The mystery is solved. Verse Daily received a box of books as an over-the-transom submission from Dufour Editions, Waywiser's U.S. distributor. This has happened to me before. The last two times I was featured in Poetry Daily I found out about it on this board. So many thanks to you who keep a sharp eye out for your oblivious lariat.

I wonder if VerseDaily knew you just had a birthday too? Happy Belated Birthday!

The ironic title takes this immediately out of the ordinary. Fine premise, and "Too whimsical for palace life" is one of the boffo tet lines here. The poem rewards numerous readings, multi-layered, and the final Q is wonderfully whimsical.